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No thread on Steve McNair's retirement?

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by BYH, Apr 18, 2008.

  1. BYH

    BYH Active Member

    My apologies if I missed it, but I was surprised I didn't see anything on this board that looked like a McNair thread.

    Weird seeing one of the last--if not THE last--links to the Houston Oilers retire. Makes me feel old. I remember when he was ripping the shit up for Alcorn State and single-handedly got them into the I-AA tourney in 1994. Never a great QB, but his 2000 Super Bowl performance was damn impressive.

    Pete Prisco wrote an...odd...column about McNair today. He says he was really good but not good enough and hints that he could have worked a lot harder without really giving any detail. Thoughts?

    http://www.sportsline.com/nfl/story/10784617
     
  2. amraeder

    amraeder Well-Known Member

    Just seems like this needs to be in here, although Steve isn't pictured:
    [​IMG]
     
  3. buckweaver

    buckweaver Active Member

    One of the more likable and entertaining-to-watch players in the NFL the last decade. He'll be missed.
     
  4. Beef03

    Beef03 Active Member

    Where does hit fit in the QB lexicon?
    I don't think he goes to the hall, but where do you rank him, what kind of company does he have?
     
  5. Saw his last game at Alcorn.
    He made the single greatest two-yard gain I ever saw.
     
  6. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    I am going to miss McNair. Probably the toughest NFL player of the last decade plus. That guy would play through injuries that most other players couldn't handle, and he always managed to keep it together and perform really well. Even at the end, when he didn't really have his legs, which had always been a big part of his game, he still found a way to give something and be a productive QB. Nothing reinforced how much of a business pro football is than the way McNair was treated by the Titans at the end. It really made me sad. I love the fact that despite it all, to this day McNair has nothing but great things to say about Jeff Fischer (who had nothing to do with it--it was purely a contract thing), who is the most underrated coach in the NFL. McNair may not have been a complete choirboy off the field, but he is a guy who mostly did things the right way when push came to shove. I am going to miss watching him play.
     
  7. Flying Headbutt

    Flying Headbutt Moderator Staff Member

    I think he was definitely one of the better QBs of his generations. He almost always made his tema win. He's not quite a HOFer, but on the field he was a hell of a guy to watch. And I remember watching him at Alcorn too. He was washed up by the time he got to Baltimore. But that Super Bowl team he led ran through him.
     
  8. 93Devil

    93Devil Well-Known Member

    Impossible to bring down.

    One of the true Steeler killers.

    Not too sad to see him go.

    Second all-time in rushing TDs for a QB? Maybe not HOF, but he should be in the discussion.
     
  9. Chef

    Chef Active Member

    Unbelievable college QB: I remember him chucking it forever at Alcorn.
     
  10. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    I don't understand why people say he was so tough... He was always injured.

    Toughest player of the last decade? Puhleeze... Perhaps you've heard of another recent retiree who played 16 years without missing a game...

    McNair will never get anywhere close to Canton, although he did have a nice career. I would agree with the Esiason comparison.
     
  11. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    No offense, but that is just plain stupid--not as much for the opinion, but for how definitively you state it.

    Football is a violent, contact sport. Injury has nothing to do with toughness. In fact, the guy who ducks out of bounds rather than fighting for a few extra yards--or the QB who isn't quick to throw a block--is usually the one who stays UNINJURED. I am a big Brett Favre fan also, so one has nothing to do with the other. But McNair took more of a pounding during his prime years than Favre did. It was partially a difference in the line play, but it was more that McNair is one crazy son of a bitch when you put pads on him and put him in a competitive situation.

    Your post notwithstanding, if you talk to just about any NFL player who has spent significant time in the leagues since the late 90s, there is a respect for McNair that goes way beyond the typical, "Oh yeah. he is a tough player," stuff. It is more like an awe.

    The guy had back surgery to repair ruptured discs--and this was a nasty, nasty injury in his case--and he was back in the lineup six weeks later. Are you nuts, saying he wasn't a tough football player--perhaps the toughest in recent memory? He played through injuries that would have knocked out 95 percent of QBs, including the back problems, broken ribs, a ruptured sternum, a cracked bone spur in his ankle (he just ran less that season) and a variety of the niggling injuries, like the constant turf toe. I can't remember how many games in which McNair ran into the locker room, got 10 stitches and was out by the next series.

    He wasn't the QB that Brett Favre was--not the same arm--but damn was McNair a winner. I can't name a QB over the last decade who was out in front on more plays ready to lower his shoulder and throw a block against large men with 4.6 speed than McNair. It's why he was injured so much, and it was why he made such a name for himself as a guy willing to sacrifice himself and then play through the mess it turned his body into. Frankly, he'll be lucky if he is able to walk without a lot of titanium reinforcements by the time he is 50. Anyone who seriously argues that he was not very tough--and maybe the toughest to play in recent memory--is sadly misinformed.
     
  12. Total agreement.
    McNair was one tough SOB who played through a crapload of injuries that would have sidelined lesser men. And he could play.
    Maybe not a HOF'er, but a higher caliber than Boomer and Everett.
     
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